


Edge of the Night

by leet19



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Divergence - Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Canon Divergence - Iron Man 3, Developing Relationship, Iron Man 3, M/M, Minor Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Night walks, Nightmares, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Protective Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Webcams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 02:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14154801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leet19/pseuds/leet19
Summary: In between terrorist threats and HYDRA conspirations, Tony and Steve find a friend on each other.





	Edge of the Night

**#1**

 

"I heard what happened"

 

Tony looked exhausted through the screen, bags under his eyes and hair a mess. He was serious, a prominent frown on his face and a shrug that tried to rest importance to it but couldn't quite pull it off, he was too tense. Steve had never seen the genius without his wit, without his casualness and bravado; then again, his friend was in a comma thanks to a terrorist bomb, he was sure that had hit close home for the man.

 

"He's gonna pull through. He's tough" said Tony, sounding defensive even when Steve hadn't been attacking him, as if the Captain had been calling to tell him he should prepare himself for the worse or something. 

 

"He survived you, I doubt this would drag him down" replied Steve, trying to shoot for amusement and was rewarded with the small quirk on the corner of the genius' lips.

 

"I must say, I'm surprised you called. Heck, you're even using videochat" Tony was quick to change the subject, teasing Steve was always a safe area and he couldn't use a bit of a laugh, even if it was at the Captain's expense.

 

"I'm not as hopeless in tech as you like to think" raised a brow the soldier, a small smile playing on his lips.

 

"Still, you could have just called. No need for the face to face, though I can understand you missing me and all" teased Tony.

 

"Ah, and there's the ego I missed the most" sighed Steve even when he was still smiling "I guess I still prefer looking at the face of the person I'm talking to. Old man habits" he pretended to shrug at himself and his 'odd' behavior and the genius chuckled.

 

"I'll cut you some slack just cause you're a relique and all"

 

There was a moment of silence were neither men knew what to say, they weren't this kind of people, the ones that talk of their problems and do the feeling-talk, Steve just prefers to deny it all and say everything is going fine while Tony just works himself raw and uses avoidance and hard sarcasm to keep everyone away. The only two persons in the world Tony thought he could talk to were unavailable to him, Rhodey was away on his job and Pepper... that was just falling apart and he didn't know how to make it stop.

 

"It's not your fault" 

 

Blinking back to reality, the genius raised his brow to Steve, confused.

 

"I know that"

 

"I really think you don't"

 

And fuck him for knowing exactly what was going through Tony's mind. Cause this felt like his fault, if he had ended those bastards when he had the chance, then none of this would have happened, people wouldn't have been blown up and Happy would be okay to keep harrassing everyone for their identifications. Steve seemed to follow each of his thoughts and had a sympathetic look in his eyes which just made him feel angry and irritated.

 

"You don't know anything, Cap"

 

"True, I don't" admitted Steve, nodding slightly "But I recognize the look on your face"

 

"Don't tell me, you've seen it in the mirror?" said Tony sarcastically.

 

"Yes" the honest answer kind of surprised him "So I know that you feel guilty even if you aren't. Just.. don't do anything rash"

 

"Why would I do that?"

 

"Because you're Tony Stark" smirked Steve and soon after cut off the comunication.

 

Tony found himself smiling to himself, he was indeed Tony Stark and everyone better fucking remember that.

* * *

 

 

**#2**

 

"Fancy finding you here"

 

Steve turned, controlling the impulse to attack out of surprise, muscles tensing for a moment before he recognized Tony and relaxed, crossing his arms and watching him unimpressed.

 

"More like, fancy you tracking me down here" said the Captain. Is not as if he was hiding, he was just walking through Central Park, trying to order his messy thoughts and come to terms with everything he had found out recently.

 

"Semmantics" smiled Tony, hands on his pockets as he started walking by his side. 

 

"What are you doing here, Tony? I thought after your sergury, you would be recovering. Isn't too soon to be out of bed?" he asked concernedly. 

 

Steve had felt terrible when he found that after their talk, Tony had decided to head on provoke the terrorist and he had blown-up his house, the soldier felt as if he had encouraged him in some way and had spent bad days and they searched for Tony on the sea, already saying he was dead and the only thing they would probably dig up would be his body. He had never felt so happy to see him blowing up things as he did when they say they spotted Iron Man suits. He had tried to contact Tony when he knew he was back in town but the man hadn't been taking calls, probably too busy on cleaning up the mess in Malibu and he heard Pepper ended up in the hospital too. It had been thanks to Natasha that he knew Tony was going under major-sergury and whatever Avenger activity that might happen, they needed to do it without Iron Man.

 

"Meh, I'm perfect" shrugged Tony and he looked as if he was truly okay. There was something about him... like a weight had been lift off, he didn't know what was the reason for the sergury but it had done him lots of good. 

 

"I'm glad" he said honestly.

 

"What about you? You look all healed up, hope you got my flowers"

 

"Hard to ignore them when they took almost half my room" smiled Steve even when it was hard to do. 

 

Finding out that Bucky had actually been alive was a huge blow to him, not letting it drag him down had been a struggle but he was back on form, ready to take on anything and everything to find him and give him back his life, the one stolen from him by those bastards.

 

"I read the reports" he said, aiming for casual while feeling Steve tensing up by his side. 

 

"I knew you would" 

 

"I just don't understand, why didn't you come to me?" Tony was honestly confused about this, it isn't as if SHIELD didn't come to him often enough for it, the Helicarrier being the latest example though he didn't appreciate HYDRA trying to use it as a killing machine.

 

"You were recovering. You had literally finished fighting terrorists" said Steve, shrugging a little.

 

"Come on, Cap. You know I wouldn't have said no to a distraction. Being in bed all day? It was killing me" Tony said dramatically and Steve smiled lightly.

 

"I'll keep it in mind for next time" he promised.

 

They walked in silence for a bit more. Even when they hadn't been talking for all that long, not even sharing the same space all that often, there was a trust building on between them, less want to fight and get at each other's throats and more friendship and bantering. It was nice. For Tony, it was different than with Pepper and Rhodey, the soldier didn't harassed him into being honest, he just took what Tony wanted to tell him. For Steve, it was nice that someone actually asked and didn't sneak behind his back to find out on their own to throw it to his face.

 

"It's nice to see you"

 

Steve found himself surprised at his own honesty, Tony looked rather surprised too but there was a smile on the corner of his eyes and the soldier relaxed, liking to see it.

 

"It's nice to see you too, Cap" Steve smiled at him, looking around then tilted his head.

 

"Care to join me for late night hot chocolate?" he said, pointing toward a stand by one of the entrances of the park.

 

"I'll never say no to that"

**Author's Note:**

> Feels like it's too vague but I kinda wanted to do a piece about how Steve and Tony were there for each other when they were troubled and this came out OTL 
> 
> Happy MCU anniversary~


End file.
